number 34 • Winter 2018

Authors

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

articles

Our K-12 education system has a transparency problem, and our higher-education system is complicit in it. Teachers and administrators never want to tell parents that their children aren't prepared for college, and colleges admit students they know are not ready to succeed. Such deception is often well intended, but it sets students up for failure, and it needs to stop.

Charter schools now educate more than half as many children as attend private schools, and are responsible for a major increase in the fraction of American students attending schools that their families choose. Yet for all their growth and visibility, the basic question of whether charter schools have been delivering on their promise of higher-quality education, especially for underprivileged students, remains remarkably open. Getting closer to an answer requires a thorough review of what we know and what we don't about the charter sector.

Education policy in recent decades has been focused primarily on ensuring that all children attain at least a minimum level of academic achievement. As educators and policymakers struggle to close gaps and ensure equal opportunity through education, however, many of the country’s most talented young people — and especially high-ability poor and minority students — are left unable to surge ahead, languishing in classes geared toward universal but modest proficiency. We are now at grave risk of neglecting our most promising students, on whom America’s future depends.

Round after round of education reform has failed in recent decades, and one major reason is our anachronistic and deeply flawed system for organizing and operating public schools. Only by understanding what ails that system, and how it might be improved, can we restore sanity and efficiency to American public education.

For thirty years, the national education debate has focused on standards, testing, and choice. This mix of ideas has changed the way we think about education, but largely failed to bring serious improvements in student performance; and the debate is clearly running out of steam. The next wave of education policy will need to grapple with the reasons for this lack of progress, and to get back to basics.